Khási

Khási, a series of hills or step-like plateaus in Assam, on the watershed between the Brahmaputra and the Surma, and with the connected Jaintia Hills giving name to a district. The rainfall is enormous, reaching in some parts in 1885-95 an annual average of over 500 inches. Lime, oranges, and potatoes are exported; coal and iron ore exist, but only the latter is extracted. The language of the Khasis, an Indo-Chinese race, 'has no analogy elsewhere in the whole of India;' it is described as 'monosyllabic in the agglutinative stage.' The principles of female descent and female authority are the most marked among their social customs. See Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal (1872).